[mark.carline]

I am wanting to get the following card to receive BBC HD via satellite:

http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info....EVista32-.html

and wondered if anyone knows if this is the best deal and/or if they do these cards without the remote control (cheaper)??

[Lakeuk]

dvbshop tends to be very keenly priced, you can sometime get is slightly cheaper if you go through dvbshop's ebay account

[sapper]

Hi all,



This is an interesting thread, and I will need to read it again and follow up some of the comments links etc - thank you

However…

I am just finishing my build of a new HTPC, consisting of..

Motherboard Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2
RAM Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300
Graphics Card MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
Hard Drives Two Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA 2 Drives
Case OrigenAE X11 A2 Case with three silent fans
PSU 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU
DVD Drive NEC writer (temporary)

OS: Windows XP – MCE 2005



I am considering installing a black gold PC-E dual TV tuner card for recording Freeview through the communal aerial.

However I live in a block of flats that is fed both terrestrial TV signal and a satellite feed from a communal aerial.

Now my question(s) are simply this.

1. What would I need to access the freeview satellite channels? What HD content is there, just the BBC HD channel?
2. I read on another thread some where (but cannot find it) where it is possible to connect a Sky HD feed directly to a PC and to decode and record the footage. Is it possible to connect up to sky HD with out the £300 box? I would be prepared possibly to subscribe to a basic package if I could receive the HD channels with out the box? If this is possible, what card should I consider buying?

I hope this makes sense, and some one can give me some simple solutions.

Adrian

[mjn]

What is on BBC HD RIGHT NOW?

I think i've got it tuned in, but i'm not sure. The frequency is 554Mhz, but i'm not sure.

[Poissony]

As far as I know BBCHD is no longer being broadcast on DTT so not sure what you are picking up on that frequency. If it was BBCHD you'd know as they broadcast a DOG.

[mjn]

You're joking right?

[Poissony]

Nope, afraid not.

http://blog.wotsat.com/page/savefree...bc_hd_lives_on

[sapper]

Originally Posted by sapper

Hi all,



This is an interesting thread, and I will need to read it again and follow up some of the comments links etc - thank you

However…

I am just finishing my build of a new HTPC, consisting of..

Motherboard Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2
RAM Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300
Graphics Card MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
Hard Drives Two Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA 2 Drives
Case OrigenAE X11 A2 Case with three silent fans
PSU 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU
DVD Drive NEC writer (temporary)

OS: Windows XP – MCE 2005



I am considering installing a black gold PC-E dual TV tuner card for recording Freeview through the communal aerial.

However I live in a block of flats that is fed both terrestrial TV signal and a satellite feed from a communal aerial.

Now my question(s) are simply this.

1. What would I need to access the freeview satellite channels? What HD content is there, just the BBC HD channel?
2. I read on another thread some where (but cannot find it) where it is possible to connect a Sky HD feed directly to a PC and to decode and record the footage. Is it possible to connect up to sky HD with out the £300 box? I would be prepared possibly to subscribe to a basic package if I could receive the HD channels with out the box? If this is possible, what card should I consider buying?

I hope this makes sense, and some one can give me some simple solutions.

Adrian

Just an update.

I am able to watch and record BBC-HD through my communal satellite dish.

I use a Techno-Trend s2-3200 DVB-S card and DVBViewer. Between the two the cost was about £100.

Expensive maybe, and it can’t be used in XP MCE but I can watch and record those excellent shows in glorious HD.

The down side, it eats hard drives, an hour program uses about 8 GB of space (uncompressed)

Adrian

[nmp]

Originally Posted by sapper

Just an update.

I am able to watch and record BBC-HD through my communal satellite dish.

I use a Techno-Trend s2-3200 DVB-S card and DVBViewer. Between the two the cost was about £100.

Expensive maybe, and it can’t be used in XP MCE but I can watch and record those excellent shows in glorious HD.

The down side, it eats hard drives, an hour program uses about 8 GB of space (uncompressed)

Adrian

Hey Sapper - care to run through how you set this up? I am in a similiar situation now.

Thanks

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by 573310

Hey Sapper - care to run through how you set this up? I am in a similiar situation now.

You will find all the info in the sticky at the top of the Media center forum but basically S2-3200 DVB-S2 card, DVBViewer plus Cyberlink PowerDVD for the H.264 MPEG4 decoder.

[sapper]

Originally Posted by 573310

Hey Sapper - care to run through how you set this up? I am in a similiar situation now.

Thanks

Sorry been away with work on a course - no interenet access god forbid

Try this link here ...
http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83

You will have to scroll down a bit but all the inforamtion is int here i do beleive

Adrian

[roaster]

As of last week, you can use Terratec Cinergy S to record and play back DVB-S2 (including BBC HD) on Macs via EyeTV software. I presume you can record on PC with the PC software; whether you can play back I don't know.

See the thread in the Mac section if you're interested in the Mac aspect (inc. screen shots).

I bought my Cinergy S via ebay from Geremany.

[KelvinS1965]

I've finally managed to get my GeCube HD 2600Pro AGP to work with hardware accelaration when viewing BBC HD using DVBViewer (V3.9.1.0).

I'm using the CCC 7.10, Power DVD Ultra 7.3.3516 and AC3Filter V1.46. I also used some registry hacks that I found on the AVSforum 2xxx thread (ATI_HD2x00_Reg_Tweaks_0.6.vbs).

ATI registry tweaks page

When watching live BBC HD my CPU is barely reading anything 0.8 to 1 % (according to Speedfan) and the GPU goes anywhere from 33 to 60% (according to CCC overclocking tab). I only had to tick the DXVA tab in 'View' / 'filters' within DVBViewer. I may try transfering my Skystar2 card and the 2600Pro into my old Athlon XP3200 powered Shuttle to see if it works in that setup when I have a spare evening. Might be useful info for those with single core CPUs.

The only (minor) issue is that during BBC HD Preview (when there is frequent changes of video/film clips) the picture goes into a judder like there is only half frame speed. To fix this I have to select 'Rebuild graph' and it's OK for sometime. If I'm watching a single program then it seems to be fine, I guess due to the fact that the type of video/film (therefore which kind of deinterlacing?) remains the same during the program. Watching Robin Hood ATM and no judders at all so far (25 minutes in).

I had been able to watch recordings using DVBViewer/CoreAVC (no HA)/ACFilter and an older version of CCC, but live viewing wouldn't work with the 2600Pro, so this is a bit of a breakthrough (especially as I now have a 1080p TV to view it on). My previous 9600 card worked live and replay using CoreAVC and a midly overclocked E6300 Core Duo CPU, but with annoying judder on horizontal pans on some scenes.

Lets hope we can receive Ch4 HD in the future once their tie in with Sky finishes, then I'll have two free HD channels.....

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by KelvinS1965

Lets hope we can receive Ch4 HD in the future once their tie in with Sky finishes, then I'll have two free HD channels.....

Luxe TV HD (12643H SR27500) is also FTA. It's DVB-S too not DVB-S2.

[KelvinS1965]

Originally Posted by nigelbb

Luxe TV HD (12643H SR27500) is also FTA. It's DVB-S too not DVB-S2.

Do take it from this comment that Ch4 HD will require an S2 card if it goes FTA? I'd be willing to get one next year if it is neccesary.

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by KelvinS1965

Do take it from this comment that Ch4 HD will require an S2 card if it goes FTA?

Yes.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by nigelbb

Luxe TV HD (12643H SR27500) is also FTA. It's DVB-S too not DVB-S2.

Not the best channel in the world but Free HD to showcase is always good , http://www.luxe.tv/EN/free-to-air-satellite.php gives the details where to find it.

Hi
I was hoping this thread would help me suss out what system I need, to watch Freesat HD when it arrives this Spring. My head is more wrecked having read the thread than before (due to my lack of knowledge)

I'd be really grateful if you could tell me if the following system will do the job, or point me to the right forum/thread.

I'm looking at a dell XPS 420 (€869/£600)

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 8MB, 1066MHz)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
640GB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x320GB - 7200rpm)

256MB nVidia™ GeForce 8600GTS graphics card

Soundblaster X-Fi xtreme

I was thinking of geting the Hauppauge HVR 4000. I presumed I could just install it and fire away on freesat HD when it arrives, but looking at this thread it seems an awful lot more complicated. Do DVB - S2 cards like the HVR 4000 solve these problems?

I want to use a pc monitor and a tv at the same time, watching HD video on one and watching telly on the other similtaneously. Is the 8600GTS up to the job? If not I can upgrade to [FONT=arial]a SINGLE 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT card for another €100/£60.

Finally having looked at the freesat hd website, it appears there isn't going to be any encryption, is this the case?

Hope you can help

Davin

[saibot]

Originally Posted by DeadlyDav

Hi
I was hoping this thread would help me suss out what system I need, to watch Freesat HD when it arrives this Spring. My head is more wrecked having read the thread than before (due to my lack of knowledge)

I'd be really grateful if you could tell me if the following system will do the job, or point me to the right forum/thread.

I'm looking at a dell XPS 420 (€869/£600)

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 8MB, 1066MHz)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
640GB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x320GB - 7200rpm)

256MB nVidia™ GeForce 8600GTS graphics card

Soundblaster X-Fi xtreme

I was thinking of geting the Hauppauge HVR 4000. I presumed I could just install it and fire away on freesat HD when it arrives, but looking at this thread it seems an awful lot more complicated. Do DVB - S2 cards like the HVR 4000 solve these problems?

I want to use a pc monitor and a tv at the same time, watching HD video on one and watching telly on the other similtaneously. Is the 8600GTS up to the job? If not I can upgrade to [FONT=arial]a SINGLE 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT card for another €100/£60.

Finally having looked at the freesat hd website, it appears there isn't going to be any encryption, is this the case?

Hope you can help

Davin

I think that PC spec is fine, that will easily play BD/HD/720p .mkv files so dont see why it wouldnt do for HDTV. I've a similar spec pc and also hope to add a hauppauge dvd-s2 card.

Any dvd-s2 card will do for freesat, or even if connect it to a current satellite dish pointing to astra2 you can pick up the freeview channels and BBCHD/C4Hd. That 4000 also has analog/dvb-t , if you dont need these I believe the Nova dvb-s2 (cheaper) will also suffice.

Not sure about running dual displays, but that 8800GT is certainly way more powerful than the 8600. usually people go for the 8800GT if they want to play DX10 games.

Hopefully some-one else can provide you with more details

[BlueDonkey]

I'm wanting to build a quiet low power HTPC capable of watching live BBC HD broadcasts. I've spent more time than is healthy reading various forum threads and am still none the wiser, so thought I'd detail the spec that I am thinking of and then hopefully some friendly chap (or chapette) could tell me whether it's a non-starter. So here goes.

Case - Silverstone LC11M http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...lc11m&area=usa
Motherboard - MSI Intel mobile on dektop http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...r-A4R&class=mb
Processor - Intel 2.4 GHz mobile core 2 Duo
Graphics - Gigabyte Radeon HD 2400 PRO http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2587
Receiver Card - Floppy DTV S2 http://www.digital-everywhere.com/en...sid=1187859689
RAM - 2GB
HD - 2.5" 250 GB SATA laptop drive (reason being is they are much quieter than 3.5")
Optical Drive - Something Blu-ray.
OS - Vista Ultimate

So does this stand a bat in hells chance of giving me BBC HD from a dustbin lid strapped to the side of the house. A local satellite installer will install a dish for around £100 so I can get a dish without giving any money to $ky

What is the best way of getting H.264? The video card has H.264 acceleration, so something that would make use of that would be great.

Thanks for any help.

[philbury]

I have an Asus M2NPV-VM in a Silverstone LC11M case and like it a lot. Unfortunately the case slots for expansion cards are in the wrong place for the riser cards. I wrote to Silverstone for their opinion and they confirmed the problem which is that micro-ATX boards for AMD ahve mostly changed layout. Also you have to buy the PCI-E and PCI riser card separately.

I don't use any cards so its OK but it is limiting. I would buy the Antec Fusion case now, but it is much bigger.

Write to them to check.

I have the Gigabyte 2400HD and it is fine for HD. Haven't they just been superceded?

I'd be interested to know how you get on with the FloppyDTV-S2

[SeanT]

Right, so I have the HVR4000 that just arrived (85 quid, couldn't say no) running BBC HD in two channel through dvbviewer - has anyone managed to get the piggybacked ac3 stream to work, and if so how?

[Poissony]

If you mean 5.1 from BBCHD then yes. I select the ac3 channel in DVBViewer and when they are broadcasting a program in 5.1 I get 5.1.

What programs have you tried it with and do you have an ac3 decoder installed?

[SeanT]

I have the cyberlink ac3 decoder (I think), but it just crashes. Managed to get ITV HD working for the footie last night too, if switching over from BBC HD you have to change the mpeg codec (to any other one) to get it to work, which is odd as it's not using it - doing this must reload the H264 codec I guess.

[kav]

Sticky removed and replaced with FAQ.

[benjjy02]

Does anyone else get judder whilst watching bbc hd?

The judder is permanent and looks like its dropping frames at regular intervals.

Im using Dvbviewer, a Nova S2 HD and a gtx8800

Thanks

[anthony.s]

Originally Posted by benjjy02

Does anyone else get judder whilst watching bbc hd?

The judder is permanent and looks like its dropping frames at regular intervals.

Im using Dvbviewer, a Nova S2 HD and a gtx8800

Thanks

Have you changed any of the DirectX options in preferences?
What codec and renderer is selected and also XP or Vista?

From memory, when showing video you can right-click and select something like 'Filter - Properties and it will show the actual codec and renderer in use and also FPS and dropped frames. I'll check again later when in front of PC unless some king soul knows.

[benjjy02]

Nice 1 anthony you pointed me in the rite direction- the H.264 decoder was set to default so changed it to cyberlink h.264, changed the renderer to vista enhanced video- seems to be running smoothly now.

Wasn’t sure about the other decoder settings (AC3 + mpeg2) tho?

Thanks again Anthony